In reaction to President Trump’s tweet, in which he bragged that he had a “much bigger and more powerful” nuclear button than North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, Lillyanne Daigle, chief spokesperson for Beyond the Bomb, a new grassroots movement to stop nuclear war, issued the following statement:

“Once again, Trump’s reckless Twitter antics put the American public — and the world — in harm’s way. His antagonism of Kim Jong-un is sophomoric and incredibly dangerous.

“Trump can’t be trusted with a Twitter account, let alone nuclear weapons, yet he has thousands of them at his immediate disposal if he decides to back up his schoolyard bravado with force. Trump’s behavior reinforces time and again that we can no longer tolerate a system that gives any single person the sole authority to launch nuclear weapons. And yet Republicans and Democrats alike seem content to sit on the sidelines while Trump edges us closer to the nuclear war.

“Members of Congress must not wait for nuclear missiles to be in the air before they act. Trump’s tweet last night underscores the urgency of reining in his unchecked power to single-handedly start nuclear war. That’s why we’re calling on Congress to get off the sidelines and support emergency measures like the ‘Restricting First Use of Nuclear Weapons Act.’

“It’s clear Trump’s outrageous rhetoric can only escalate an already volatile crisis on the Korean peninsula and put us on the fast track to nuclear war. The window for Congress to prevent this nightmare scenario is rapidly shrinking. It’s time to put a stop to this madness.”

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Beyond the Bombis building a grassroots movement to move us back from the brink of nuclear war, dismantle the nuclear system, and to secure a just future for all. For more information, please visit www.beyondthebomb.org.